


Under the Sea, You Fall Up

by Serpentsign



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: ASoIaF Kink Meme, Gen, M/M, Stannis the grumpy mermaid
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-21
Updated: 2014-07-21
Packaged: 2018-02-09 20:57:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1997544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serpentsign/pseuds/Serpentsign
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the kinkmeme prompt "Davos is a sailor, Stannis is a very grumpy mermaid" : Davos the smuggler is carrying a cargo of fine silks to one of the hidden inlets in Shipbreaker Bay when he comes across a man in the water.</p><p>"Davos would have mistaken him for a corpse were it not for the fierce glare the man aimed at him. In the moonlight, he was pale much like the belly of a fish or the bloated corpses that washed up on the shores after a shipwreck. Despite the frown, he looked young, not much over twenty. Hollow cheeks and sharply carved cheekbones gave his face a severe, angular look and his eyes were sunken beneath heavy, black brows. But even then, with aid of the moon, Davos could tell that the eyes were a piercing blue"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under the Sea, You Fall Up

**Author's Note:**

> The lovely artist orb01 on tumblr made some art for this fic, [posted here](http://orb01.tumblr.com/post/94284415968/yes-and-yes)!

With muffled oars and a black sail, the small sloop Davos sailed was merely a shadow and a whisper in the night. Navigating Shipbreaker Bay was perilous in daylight, in the pale light of a half-moon more of the than not covered by dark clouds it was even more so. Unless you were Davos, the most infamous smuggler on the narrow sea and a bloody good sailor. As he got closer to the shores and the strong currents together with a healthy wind from the south threatened to drive him against the jagged rocks that lined the coast of the bay, he pulled down the sails and took out the oars. It was hard, slow work navigating his way through the rocks and, sometimes, split masts of the sunken ships that had given the bay its name.

He had just rounded a small headland and entered the small, secluded inlet protected from the winds by high cliffs on both sides when he hit something with his left oar. Normally he’d assume he had hit an underwater rock whose tip didn’t break the surface, but the thunk of the oar had been followed by a loud, pained groan.

"Gods!" Davos exclaimed and scrambled to get his oars back into the boat before he could lean over the railing to face whomever was there. He begged the seven for it to be a poacher emptying crab cages who would not be able to turn Davos in without implicating himself.

Davos would have mistaken him for a corpse were it not for the fierce glare the man aimed at him. In the moonlight, he was pale much like the belly of a fish or the bloated corpses that washed up on the shores after a shipwreck. Despite the frown, he looked young, not much over twenty. Hollow cheeks and sharply carved cheekbones gave his face a severe, angular look and his eyes were sunken beneath heavy, black brows. But even then, with aid of the moon, Davos could tell that the eyes were a piercing blue.

Davos grabbed the man by his elbow, pulling him closer to the railing and peered out into the darkness.

"Where did you come from?"

"I might ask you the same thing." The man grumbled, rubbing his no doubt tender head with his free hand.

"Did you come from a ship or from ashore? Are there others out there? Where-" Davos was about to ask more questions but the man waved his hand as if swatting Davos’ questions away like flies.

"Enough questions! Keep your grip on my arm and I will show you." His voice held an easy command, clearly used to having his way. It reminded Davos of the highborns he sometimes did business with. The man mirrored Davos’ grip on his elbow and put his free hand on Davos’ shoulder. With great difficulty, judging by the shaking muscles of his arms, he twisted most of his torso out of the water. As he did so, something broke the surface a few feet to the right, just by the bow. The tail fin of a fish, Davos realised, at least three feet across. It glimmered in the dim light of the moon. Davos looked between the fin and the man’s face, refusing to accept what was being proposed to him.

"I don’t-" Davos fell back against the thwart, letting go of the railing and the thing in the water, leaving him to scramble for the railing. The fingers that clamped around the wood were lightly webbed and when Davos followed the length of the arm, he could see gills opening and closing along his neck.

"There’s no such thing as mermaids." Davos said, faintly. The creature let out an irritated huff.

"Unless the darkness has robbed you of your sight entirely, I’m clearly not a maid of any kind, sailor. The correct term in your tongue would be mer _man_.”

"Merfolk, then. There’s no such thing as merfolk. I’ve sailed the narrow sea from Tyrosh to Braavos since I was a lad and though every sailor claims he’s laid with one, I have never seen even a tail."

"We keep to ourselves. No doubt our skins and meat would collect a pretty price, should we reveal ourselves to man." He surveyed Davos’ sloop, frowning. "Where are your lanterns?"

"Well, I-" But the merman’s eyes had already wandered to the muffled oars and the heap of black sails that laid on the deck.

"You’re a smuggler." He accused, his displeasure clearly written in the downturn of his mouth and the deepening frown. There wasn’t much to say to that, Davos thought, and certainly no denying the claim. He was reluctant to lie to the creature, unsure if he would decide to drag him into the depths if he smelled deceit. Eyeing the broad but bony shoulders, slender fingers keeping a cramped grip on the boat, however, Davos doubted the merman would be capable of dragging even a child down with him. The stories about merfolk were mainly about mermaids and all seemed to involve a certain amount of body fluids being exchanged. This merman didn’t seem the type to trade anyone’s seed for magic.

A sudden gust of wind rocked the boat and the merman grimaced badly before schooling his features. He was clearly struggling with his grip on the boat and Davos thought his shaking arms might give out at any moment. Unflinching blue eyes showed no weakness of will even as his body was failing him.

"Are you injured?"

"No." The merman snapped. Yet he seemed reluctant in letting go of the railing and Davos was much too fascinated with the creature to force him away. After a few moments, his jaw working as if he was struggling to keep words in, the merman sighed and ground out: "I can’t move. There is a fishing net. It must have drifted with the currents and caught in the rocks." He seemed to take his wounded pride a little more seriously than any physical wound, again reminding Davos of a highborn.

"How long have you been here?" Davos asked as he reached for the knife at his belt. The merman seemed half-frozen and starved, shivering as he was.

"Since the moon was new." He eyed the blade in Davos’ hand warily as Davos stared where the merman’s torso disappeared into the dark waters, wondering how to go about the business of cutting him loose.

"Right, how do we do this?"

"I can’t move far enough for you to reach from your boat and I can’t bend to do it myself." The merman informed him in a clipped tone. Davos sighed. The water was dark and the winds were cold. This would be most unpleasant. He put the blade back into its hilt and slipped out of his cloak and shirt, shivering as he went. Before he entered the water, he dropped anchor and lit one of the lanterns, handing it to the merman.

"Hold this above the water or I won’t be able to see my own hand in front of me down there."

The merman gingerly gripped the lantern, leaning into the heat of the flame, and held it as Davos instructed. The water was ice cold, pinpricks of cold stinging Davos as he jumped in feet first. In the warm light of the lantern the full figure of the merman was revealed and Davos almost opened his mouth to gasp. He was easily ten feet long, the pale torso turning gradually into grey, shimmering scales around his hips. The net was wrapped tight around his waist and tail, cutting into the skin and scales in several places. Moving must be agony, Davos thought as he eyed the swollen pink flesh where the net had caught in the pelvic fins.  
He went up for air once before diving back down to start at the fishing net. The cotton thread has chafed the skin raw to the point of bleeding and Davos winced in sympathy as the spine of the knife pressed against the abused skin. As the net snapped and fell away from his waist it left lines of reddened flesh behind. Davos sank deeper into the water, holding himself steady by gripping the merman’s hip and started cutting away the ropes winded around the tail and fins.

He half suspected the merman would bolt the moment he was free but he stayed put, holding the light over the water until Davos had broken the surface and had a grip on the railing. The merman carefully put the lantern on the thwart and his now dangerously shaking arms on the railing.

Davos startled when he felt the long tail wrapping itself carefully around his right leg for a moment, only to quickly uncurl again. He felt it move in intricate patterns beneath the surface, brushing against him every now and again. The merman was trying returning the bloodflow, he realised, stretching his muscles. On an impulse, Davos tugged at the merman’s arm until it was flung across his shoulders. A quiet sigh fell from the merman’s lips and he leaned into the touch, resting his head against Davos’ shoulder. They stayed like that for a minute, until the cold water and wind caused Davos’ teeth to clatter and his body to shake. The merman immediately let go of him and used his tail to help push Davos back into the sloop.

"I have onions and salted fish if you want it." Davos said as he dripped water onto the small deck, reaching for his cloak with shivering hands. At the prospect of fish the merman’s head snapped to attention. He eyed the fish and Davos suspiciously when he gave it to him, no doubt thinking the brown shrivelled, dry meat inedible. When he bit into it, he struggled for a moment with its leathery texture but managed with the help of sharp, jagged canines of his upper and lower jaw. Davos peeled an onion too and handed it to him.

"How do you like it?" The merman shrugged.

"It’s food and I’m starving."

"Good thing I hit you with my oar then, or you would never had the pleasure of eating Fleabottom’s best salted fish."

"Likely, I would have frozen to death before I had starved." The merman answered, ignoring or missing the jest. "My kind isn’t built for standing still. In the northern seas there are merfolk with thick skins and cold blood in their veins who can sleep beneath the ice for month at a time. But to us it means death." If there are more of them, Davos thought, why didn’t his kin come for him? Perhaps they were solitary creatures like most fish of prey but they were also part human. He seemed too young to be completely on his own.

"I would have your name, smuggler." He demanded.

"Davos."

"Well, Davos the smuggler, I would repay your favour by leading you ashore but seeing as we’re in safe waters and I will have no part in your criminal activities, I can only repay you in treasure for now." He seemed reluctant to pay in something so superficial as gold. "If you wait here, I will return."

The moon had travelled far enough for Davos to start worrying about dawn when the merman surfaced again. He handed Davos a bag made of what looked like sail cloth hastily tied together with coarse rope. It was heavy in Davos hand and when he opened it, colourful gem stones and gold coins fell into his hands. Stunned, he could only stare at the merman with his mouth wide open.

"Is it enough?" The merman asked, "I had hoped it would be enough to start an honest living but I know little of your currency."

"It’s plenty. You have my thanks."

"There is something else as well." He pointed at a leather pouch, half-hidden among the precious stones and coin. It contained a decent sized, dark shell, small enough for Davos to curl in his fist. Carved into the surface were marks Davos had never seen before in his life. But since Davos couldn’t read even the common tongue, it did not make much difference to him.

"What do they mean?"

"It’s the secret magic of my people. If you ever find yourself lost at sea, call my name into the shell and I will come for you."

"And your name?"

"Stannis."

Davos adjusted the string on the pouch and put it around his neck. “I don’t want to lose it.” He said to Stannis. Several emotions flitted across Stannis face at that but in the end he just nodded brusquely and warned Davos of misusing the gift. “If I find you drunk at a dock somewhere, I will drown you myself.” They bade each other farewell and Stannis disappeared into the depths with a small flourish of his tail.

When Davos finally tied his boat to a small pier, hidden behind an outshoot of rocks and reed, the waiting merchant and his men jested and snickered at his lateness and his state of his clothes. Davos laughed and spun them a tale of mermaids.

**Author's Note:**

> I figured it would make sense for Stannis to know at least some things about human culture since he would SO the guy who insisted that the merfolk needed to go patrolling the coasts and keep an eye out for threats. In Clash of Kings it says something about Stannis knowing the amount of soldiers every house in Westeros had so I figured this would be the equivalent. In the end he probably had to do it by himself because merman!Renly just laughed at him as he picked out some new shiny shells for a necklace.


End file.
